Dan Stevens: ‘Abbey’ gives actor his breakthrough (The Columbus Dispatch)

By Nancy Mills

New York Times SyndicateSunday January 8, 2012 11:54 AM

A look that worked well for Colin Firth has proved equally beneficial for Dan Stevens.

The breakthrough star of Downton Abbey, returning tonight for its second season on PBS, owes at least some of his success to Jane Austen and a wet shirt.

Firth turned into an international sex symbol when, as the moody Mr. Darcy, he emerged from a lake — dripping wet in his shirt sleeves — in Pride and Prejudice (1995).

Stevens had a similar moment in a televised version of Sense & Sensibility (2008) when his character, Edward Ferrars, chopped wood in the rain.

“My scene was originally written to be on a bright, sunny day,” said Stevens, 29. “Edward was going to be shirtless, and I wasn’t very keen on it. On the day, it was pouring with rain, so I was relieved that they let me keep my shirt on.

“I was quite ill with strep throat for most of the shoot,” he added, “so it wasn’t the easiest scene. But it seems to be the one people remember.”

Set during the early 20th century in England, Downton Abbey casts Stevens as Matthew Crawley — a lawyer who becomes the designated heir of a country estate because the owner (Hugh Bonneville) has three daughters but no son.

“It has a very classic English setting and English theme,” Stevens said. "“It’s an Upstairs, Downstairs dynamic in a big country house, but it has a modern tinge to it. It’s like The West Wing or The Sopranos, where you have a big core of central characters. The story roams around."

The second season jumps ahead to 1916.

“We start in the middle of World War I,” Stevens said, “and there are some pretty epic changes going on. The war affects all of the characters in different ways. It’s interesting to see how the dynamic shifts. Everything is turned upside down for a while.

“This season explores how everybody deals with that.”

Crawley becomes a soldier, giving the actor some welcome new notes to strike.

“I got to do action stuff in the trenches,” Stevens said.

Being cast as a romantic hero surprised him, he admitted.

“It’s fun to play that,” he said, “but I never saw myself like that. It makes me smile.”

When he looks in a mirror, Stevens added, he sees himself “as a gangly 17-year-old, trying to work everything out.”

“I was about 6 feet tall when I was 11,” he explained. “That wasn’t easy, although it was useful for sports.”

The Downton Abbey role, which places him simultaneously as an insider and an outsider, seems to be a good fit for Stevens.

“I like his questioning nature,” the actor said. “He comes in and is able to critique this world and ask questions about it. Sometimes, he passes judgments that are wrong.

“He goes through a learning process, and I can relate to that. I have an anti-authoritarian streak in me. I wasn’t that bad, but I didn’t get on terribly well within the institution of school.”

The adopted son of two teachers, Stevens grew up in rural Wales and became interested in acting at a young age.

“I played a cleaning lady in a school play,” he said. “I enjoyed making people laugh.”

He was, however, hazy about how to proceed.

“I knew there was this group of actors, but I didn’t know how you became one,” he said. “I precociously wrote a letter to the National Theatre when I was 14: ‘Dear National Theatre, I’d like to be an actor.’ They sweetly wrote back, suggesting that I try the National Youth Theatre. It auditions thousands of kids between the ages of 15 and 21.”

Stevens auditioned and was accepted.

At Cambridge, where he majored in English literature, Stevens became involved with Footlights, a renowned amateur acting club. There he played the title role in Macbeth (2002), with classmate Rebecca Hall as Lady Macbeth.

Hall’s father, noted British director Sir Peter Hall, saw the show, was impressed with Stevens’performance and took him under his wing.

“He gave me my first theater job out of university,” Stevens said. “I didn’t study acting — I learned on the job by watching. He gave me what I consider my classical training. I did Shakespeare and Noel Coward with him and learned about speaking.”

After graduating from Cambridge, Stevens spent several years onstage in Hall productions and gradually moved into British television, appearing on The Line of Beauty (2006), Dracula (2006) and Maxwell (2007).

But, until Downton Abbey, he remained under the popular radar.

The third season will begin filming in the spring.

“It’s set in 1920 and 1921,” he said. “After the enormous scale of the second season, I think the third will be more about the house again.

“It’s the dawn of the modern era; the world will be almost recognizable. People have telephones and cars. They’re not wearing bonnets and riding around on horses.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2012/01/08/abbey-gives-actor-his-breakthrough.html